Tackling Climate Change

Climate change poses an immediate and long-term threat to people and our planet. Universities like Harvard are uniquely equipped to shape the ideas and innovations that will lead the transition to a low-carbon future.

At Harvard, we are acting on climate change through research that occurs across disciplines and throughout the world; through teaching and learning, by providing our students with the tools to confront this issue for generations to come; and on our campus, by modeling an institutional pathway to a healthier, more sustainable community.

Seeing beyond the horizon has always been higher learning’s special concern. Universities thrive because of an insatiable yearning to understand ourselves and the world. We mold minds capable of innovation because we are able to imagine a world different from the one we live in.

Harvard joins leading research universities in reaffirming commitment to climate change progress

Research without boundaries

Research without boundaries means exploring across disciplines and taking an open stance, where every question is legitimate and any path might yield an answer.

Harvard continues to build on its well-established climate and energy related research and teaching initiatives. Already we support research at the vanguard of energy and climate science—whether in engineering, law, public health, policy, design and business, research has an unparalleled capacity to accelerate the progression from nonrenewable to renewable sources of energy.

In this video series, faculty from across campus discuss the many dimensions of climate change ranging from law, business, public policy, public health, design, science and engineering, and the humanities, and offer insights to different pathways for the future.

Harvard's Ali Malkawi explains his efforts to create a house will be transformed into an energy-efficient headquarters and lab space for the Graduate School of Design's Center for Green Buildings and …

Creating and nurturing the thinkers of tomorrow

Seeing beyond the horizon has always been higher learning’s special concern. We mold minds capable of innovation because we are able to imagine a world different than the one we live in. We give students a framework to take on issues and tough questions to apply innovative approaches to global problems, a framework that they will apply as the leaders of tomorrow.

Our educational programs, with some 250 courses across the University focusing on aspects of energy, environment, and sustainability, prepare future leaders with the insight and foresight to safeguard our environment and build a healthier, low carbon economy in the years and decades to come. Harvard’s alumni are applying the lessons learned at Harvard across disciplines in the public and private sectors.

Harvard Climate Stories

Modeling a sustainable campus

In 2008, Harvard University established its most ambitious sustainability commitment to date: a science-based goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% below 2006 levels by 2016, inclusive of growth. Since that time, Harvard has pursued direct cuts in campus emissions by increasing building energy efficiency and transitioning to a cleaner energy supply through improvements to its utilities and investments in renewable energy. The University is also partnering with the cities of Boston and Cambridge in actively preparing its campus to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change that are already being felt.

From an institutional standpoint, Harvard’s sustainability commitment aims to transform the University into a healthy, thriving community that contributes positive social, economic, and environmental benefits. Students and faculty are encouraged to collaborate in using the campus as a “living laboratory” to understand real-world energy and sustainability challenges, and then pilot new solutions that can be widely replicated.

Our Sustainability Plan sets a clear vision, goals, and priorities for a healthier, more efficient, and sustainable future.

See how thousands of students, faculty, and staff have worked together across our 13 Schools to learn how we’re transforming our campus into a healthier, more resilient community focused on well-being.

Aldís Elfarsdóttir ’18 didn’t like the energy-wasting implications of cracking the window to lower the temperature in her Eliot House room. So she and two recent grads have launched a temperature data-gathering project to help the House conserve wasted energy.